This letter from Jordan to Christian illustrates the breadth and depth of their friendship, and how they relied on each other to navigate personal and professional hardships.
East Hampton, N.Y. 11937
October 7, 1977
Dear Barbara,
Thank you very much for taking the time to write, and for taking the time to check into teaching possibilities for me! It sounds good about your book: is it close to finished?
In the Sunday [New York] Times Book Review, October 9th, there’s a rather helpful review of my book coming out [and] so I will wait until I have copies of some [and] send that plus some sort of vita to the folks you recommended, early Monday A.M.!
Mae Durham Rogers, in the school of Library Science is kindly trying to set things up, as well, [and] I’ll get the Times’ # out to her, too, because she seems to think of me primarily as a “children’s book author” [and] that’s a rather wild description to try [and] fit in to.
Thank you very much about Gloria Bowles. Next semester at Stony brook I’ll be teaching Contemporary Women’s Poetry: it’ll be a dry run for me and I’m looking forward to it, with a lot of excitement.
Things out here are pretty ridiculous: I am hanging on to the idea of escape: the isolation is extreme; phone calls, even, cost a fortune from here to NYC, etcetera. And 2 Sundays ago, this bastard came [and] did me in, taking advantage of the fact that there’s no one to hear you scream, etc. So now I have a watchdog, half Shepherd [and] half Beagle, [and] we’re muddling ahead.
The Times’ thing is a turning point [and] helps to balance out the state of affairs in my head, coincidentally.
And it’s beautiful, notwithstanding the 2-legged animals around. So I hope to settle into decently sustained work in the world soon as reasonable calm returns to my immediate environs.
Well, Barbara, here’s wishing you well in all ways, and godspeed with your work.
Please drop me a note letting me know when Gloria Bowles may wish to see me for an interview or, if not, I’ll try to find you by phone, Sunday October 27th before the 28th.
Thank you very much, again.
See you soon.
June
P.S. Is there anything and/or any information from NYC that you could use, please?
Letter, June Jordan to Barbara Christian, 1977, Carton 6:50, Barbara Christian papers, BANC MSS 2003/199 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
